City flyover plan shelved

SHILLONG: The state government has finally decided to abandon its plan to build a flyover from Rap’s Mansion to Harijan Colony, but is contemplating one from Bivar Road to Polo near the CRPF camp.
The decision to shelve the Rap’s Mansion- Harijan Colony flyover has been taken with the Ministry of Defence and High Court of Meghalaya not giving their consent.
Informing this here on Friday, Urban Affairs Minister Hamlet Dohling said that the project has been abandoned since the Ministry of Defence has not given permission while the High Court of Meghalaya has objected to it on security grounds since the proposed flyover was to be constructed in its close vicinity.
The flyover was proposed more than a decade ago to lessen traffic congestion in the city.
Earlier, the state government used to pay monetary compensation to the defence authorities for acquiring land, but now the latter demand land of equal value in return, which is difficult for the government to comply with.
The Revenue Department had earlier identified a couple of locations which could have been handed over to the defence authorities, but here too, the government would have had to first acquire the plots.
Expressing concern over increasing traffic congestion in the city, Dohling, however, said that the government now wants to construct a flyover from Bivar Road to Polo near the CRPF camp.
“I have spoken to PWD and we will conduct a joint survey soon to check the project’s feasibility,” Dohling said while adding that the money for the abandoned flyover is lying with the Deputy Commissioner’s office.
Averring that the government is keen to build bigger roads in the city, he said that size of the population and the number of vehicles has increased while road space has squeezed particularly due to vendors increasingly occupying the roadsides.
“We cannot tackle the matter as it is pending before the court,” he said
He also said that the government has plans to construct wide and big roads in New Shillong Township even as he informed that many offices are already functioning in the area, but once the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly building is constructed, more would open there.
“Hopefully, we can also shift the Secretariat there in the near future,” Dohling said.